Soooo… Game three went a little better. But I still lost. Only difference was I gave my Dad a bit more run for his money than the last two. Sadly I forgot to turn on the log file, so my masterful offensive wasn’t recorded. I guess history really is written by the victor!
Anyway, I recall the board strokes, so I nabbed a map file and the end game, and did I quick rebuild via Power Point. So heres the initial setup (roughly).
Now I forgot to include a Red Forces icon for a couple troops just below the left most edge of my Dads Black Forces, but this is were we set had our forces. I won the toss for first turn and immediately ran an armor package up the right side of the map and hooked left plowing over his one paratroop in that top city on the right (the one to its left was also a paratroop). I lost an armor unit while removing his paratroopers. My missing left side unit was also armor and it skirted the left side, while moving on his capital. My three paratroop units jumped in to surround his second paratroop unit and removed it at the cost of only one unit.
Dad’s first turn pushed the bulk of his forces in to my core map and they stayed within that mountainous area in the bottom left for the rest of the game. He started picking off my units in the mountains with a mix of special troops and mech infantry. Also some of his special troops started conducting amphibious movements, while a small armor package moved around the edge of that lake.
My next turn, I finished my movement to his capital, encircling it with my armor packages from left and right, and cleared his capital of his special troops. My paratroop units their moves and occupied the two town he had held, and stood by for another jump. The forces holding my capital sat back and waited.
Dad’s next turn he consolidated into that mountainous area encircling my capital, but staying out of my zones of control (which would have started a combat).
Having cleared his forces from most of the bard, I started moving along roads a lone infantry unit up and around towards his capital to hold one of its hexes, so as to prevent him from gaining reinforcements. While doing that I held my forces in place.
While I was doing that, Dad was starting to attrite my forces in my capital area. At one point he isolated a unit to the south (blocking a line of retreat), which I would use on my next turn.
My next turn I moved against his isolated unit and jumped in my last two paratroopers. The only problem was doing this meant I would have at least two combats back to back for one unit, but more likely three combats (which is what happened). Our first combat caused me to lose a paratrooper, and the second cost me the rest of my attack force, while only killing his isolated unit. My loss was mostly my fault, as I chose an attack type that was more aggressive than I needed, and Dad chose a defense that was more conservative.
With the bulk of my forces gone and only two units in my capital, Dad pounced on them, wiping them out. Now hilariously, he used his movement reward (depending on your attack option, you gain free movement points from your units) and started moving his forces north towards his own capital. And left my capital unoccupied! He said after the game he realized he made that mistake after wrapping his turn. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth I double checked how many reinforcements I could bring in on a turn. It wasn’t much.
On my next turn I brought in the only thing I could: one infantry unit. By this time I had my infantry unit sitting on his capital and started moving my armor package down to met his forces, and like an idiot, moved one unit into the pass, and not really doing anything with the combat, other than losing a unit (I forget if he lost one too, but at this point I was pushing for him to get a pyric victory).
On his next turn, he obligatorily turn a few units around and monkey stomped that infantry unit into the ground, and then reoccupied the capital.
At this point I had only 20 combat points and decided to charge with my last two armor units and got them killed, and took a unit or two with me. As you can see, it wasn’t enough to pull a draw either. The game lasted about 12 or 13 turns, and none of them were simply one or the other doing nothing. We were always shuffling around somewhere.
Hindsight being what it is, there were a few times where I know I made bad choices on placement and/or combat options, which then cost me more than I had need to spend. I probably should have unoccupied my capital as soon as I took out his paratroopers and held the line and brought in more infantry. Another place was encircling his isolated unit. Doing that pretty much meant he went with an all or nothing mindset, were as leaving him an escape route (if a defender has to move and can’t, that unit is removed anyways), might have caused a shift in his thinking. I think next game I’ll suggest switching forces and see how I do with Black Forces.
After the game we had our AAR/design chat and talked about possibly shrinking or bulking out the Corp structures, depending on how many maps you use. Which works for Red but while talking I realized doesn’t work for Black. Reds’ Corps are symmetrical, Blacks are asymmetrical. Which led us to talking about using scenarios with fixed force organization charts and placement. I think what I might do is work on a random roll objective chart that each side rolls 2D6 (using them as a right and down on a matrix), and that becomes their game objective. It’ll require looking up D6 percentages so placement in the matrix isn’t skewed.
Playing a War Game 